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Mother tongue or native language? Is it correct to ask 'What is your mother tongue'? For me as an English learner this phrase 'mother tongue' doesn't sound okay. I always say my native language, and I would like to know native English speakers' opinion.
Jul 5, 2017 11:47 AM
Answers · 12
4
Hi Vera, It's OK. We would not feel strange to be asked a question about our "mother tongue". But probably in normal conversation , I would probably use "native language" or " first language" . In fact none of those words might appear at all. Look at this example Thomas : So what language do you speak in Georgia.? It is Russian? Georgian Person: No, we speak Georgian . So here I didn't use "mother tongue" or "native language" at all. Happy Learning!
July 5, 2017
3
Yes, it is correct to ask "What is your mother tongue?" However, I agree with you, it does sound a bit strange. That will depend a bit on which English speaker you are talking to though (where they are from). It is correct though. Other ways you can ask the same question are: - What is your native language? - What is your first language? (Personally, I think this one sounds best.) - What language did you speak growing up? (Only ask this if they clearly have multiple languages.)
July 5, 2017
I concur with the other comment. It is correct and natural, but we use native language far more.
July 5, 2017
I'm from America, so maybe this is different in other countries of course, but usually we don't say "mother tongue". We typically say "What is your native language" or even more often they won't ask which language and will instead ask: "where are you from?"
July 12, 2017
We say mother tongue a lot as a joke. It sounds funny. But talking to someone casually, it's probably best to say native language.
July 11, 2017
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